


A living Experiment

by Eye_of_Purgatory



Series: Ed's Experiment [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Adult Edward Elric, Gen, Inspired by Frankenstein, Its kinda a kid fic, Kid Fic, Light-Hearted, Parenthood, i mean not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28918191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eye_of_Purgatory/pseuds/Eye_of_Purgatory
Summary: An epilogue to "Ed's Experiment"Mustang finds the truth about adopted daughter of the Hughes, a fairly light continuation of the earlier work.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Gracia Hughes & Roy Mustang
Series: Ed's Experiment [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118636
Kudos: 13





	A living Experiment

**Author's Note:**

> You should probably read this after reading the first part of the series, but it can be generally understood without.

Roy Mustang is having a normal day until Fullmetal walks in the room, looking exactly like the day he took the certification exam.

He forgot how young Elric was when he became a dog of the state, a meter and a half high at the most. His face still has baby fat for truth’s sake. The boy looks more awkward than he has in years, far too small in his coat, and his braid is unkempt. Mustang hasn’t seen him in a braid for years.

“...Fullmetal?” He dares to ask, because if anyone would travel forward in time to mess with Roy, it would be the subordinate who took years off his life. 

Elric lights up like Mustang really does not remember, “YES! You got my Halloween costume! I’m going as the Fullmetal Alchemist this year, Uncle Roy!” The Fuhrer has to take a moment to look at the child in front of him, the one who apparently isn’t the young alchemist. 

“Elena?”

“What do you think? Mom helped me get the costume right.” He looks at Elena Hughes and wonders how he never saw it before, how Roy never connected her golden eyes to the two other people who have them. Her golden hair to the only one of those.

“It’s very accurate.” He tells her, because above all else it is the truth. Roy does the mental math, Edward celebrated his twenty seventh birthday a few months ago, and Elena will be twelve fairly soon. Edward must have been about fifteen when he became a father. 

“Are you just saying that to be nice? The braid is messy and the coat is too big and I’m too short to look like a state alchemist.” She complains, sitting down on the couch like she owns the place, just like Edward used to. 

“I’m serious.” He assures, innocuously searching his desk for Elric’s phone number. He finds the number quickly, trying to hold off his curiosity until he has time to call them. Elena leaves the room soon after Roy stops paying attention to her.

As soon as he stops hearing her steps down the hall, Roy dials the number into his phone. Paperwork can wait, he has to know. 

The phone rings for what feels like hours before somebody picks up, “Rockbell automail here.” Edward answers.

Mustang jumps straight to the point, “You got a girl pregnant when you were fifteen Fullmetal?” He accuses, completely sure of his conclusion.

“First of all, no. Second, can we talk about this in person. I’ll be there in a day or so.”

“Fullme-” The call abruptly ends, “Brat.” He mutters.

-

Mustang knocks on the door to the Hughes family home, “Come in Roy! The door’s unlocked and everything!” Gracia shouts from inside as a response. He’s so glad that Gracia agreed to talk with him.

He opens the door to the living room, where a lanky teen girl sprawls on the nearest couch, “Hey Uncle Roy! What’s up?” Elisia shouts, tall like Maes, but otherwise fairly similar to Gracia. He waves as a response, before walking to where he heard Gracia shout from.

She is in the kitchen, checking on what smells like a roast, “How are you doing Gracia?” he asks with a careful smile.

She seems to see right through him, “I meant what I said, Roy. We can wait to talk about it until Ed gets here.” He almost forgets how much they know each other sometimes, even if they were mainly friends through Maes, he and Gracia have known each other for decades.

“Talk about what, Mom?” Elisia shouts from the living room, before walking in to join them in the kitchen. She is about as subtle as Mustang in wanting to know these secrets.

“We’ll tell you later tonight.” Gracia assures, essentially confirming to Roy that what he suspects is true. She then turns to Elisia, “Can you help set the table honey?”, she asks, causing the teenager to grudgingly comply.

It isn’t long before Mustang hears the door open. 

“ED!” He hears the little girl shout, along with the pounding of running feet along the floor. 

“Hey kiddo. I heard about your costume, I bet it was the best one in your whole school.”

“Did you get me anything?”

“I got something for you and something for Elisia, where is she?”

“In the kitchen with mom and Uncle Roy. Can I have it?”

Theres a long pause in which Mustang wonders if Gracia told Fullmetal he was going to be here. He would almost feel guilty, but he needs answers. A sort of worry has overcome him over the last day, increasing knowledge that children are not born to teenagers when things are going well. 

Eventually Edward does respond to the girl who is clearly his daughter, “Yeah, here you go.”

Elena comes running in, clutching a dense looking alchemical handbook to her chest. Edward follows close by, and Mustang can’t help but see how similar alike they look. Their hair is identical, as well as their eyes and skin, their faces are as similar as an adult man’s can be to a young girl, but the resemblance still is stark. He has no idea how he never noticed the resemblance before.

Fullmetal smiles good naturedly at him “Hey Fuhrer Bastard, haven’t seen you in awhile.” he teases, before turning his attention away, “Anyway, got you something Elisia.” Fullmetal slides a box towards the fifteen year old.

Mustang curiously looks at the contents when she opens them, “Holy shit Ed, this is so cool.” she admires a large collection of incredibly sharp looking knives. The box is of good quality, and eerily familiar, so Fullmetal must have gotten them made by one of the blacksmiths in central.

“They’re the same type of knives your dad would use. Thought that if you still wanted to be a soldier you might as well know how to use em.” That explains the familiarity Roy noticed with the box, they were the same kind Hughes used to buy. His heart pangs with grief for his friend, even though he died over a decade ago he is still with them in spirit.

Gracia interrupts them before Fullmetal can give Elisia a lesson in knife throwing, “We should eat the food before it gets cold.” She then pulls the roast from the oven, a fragrant piece of meat that makes his mouth water.

“Thanks so much Gracia, this is great.” Elric stares at the food with enormous eyes, just like Elena next to him. Elisia acts like she doesn’t really want the meat, although Mustang can see her sneaking glances.

“Any time, Ed.” Gracia laughs, and starts to serve them.

They dig into the food, indulging in good natured conversation and discussion. Fullmetal tells them stories about Xing, and Mustang counters those with anecdotes about the hijinks the Emperor got up to on a visit to Amestris.

Soon enough the time that Mustang was waiting for arrives, Gracia dismisses the children to their rooms so that they can talk to each other.

As soon as he hears the girls close their doors he turns to the man beside him, “Fullmetal. Explain yourself.” Before he can answer, Mustang continues “Elena is your child, right?”

“Playing dirty, Mustang.”

“Am I correct?” He prods, waiting for the inevitable answer. Maybe waiting so that he doesn’t have to worry over what he did wrong all those years ago. What trouble Fullmetal got up to that he didn’t think to ask for help over.

“It depends on what you define parenthood on.”

Gracia shoots Fullmetal a look, “I am sure Lena would take it well, she looks up to you Ed.” She reasons.

“That’s not the issue.” Edward takes a few deep breaths, and Roy finds himself breathing along with him. “Did you know that you can alchemically create a child?”

Mustang never thought that was possible, he never thought anybody would ever want to do something like that, he never thought Fullmetal would attempt such a thing. In a way, it makes more sense than he could have ever imagined, in another way it is the least probable thing he could ever comprehend. He knew that the Elrics were talented, Mustang never would have sent them on missions if they weren’t some of the most talented alchemists he knew, but he never knew they were capable of this. Such a feat would revolutionize the way alchemy was thought of, revolutionize the horrors that it could create. But above anything else, it was the stupidest, most reckless, useless piece of impossible alchemy he could comprehend of Elric attempting.

Mustang tries his best to keep his volume down, “You. WHAT.” Did the boy not even remember why he lost his own arm and leg? Not enough to think twice about a stupid experiment?

“I had this theory about a method for the creation of souls, no I intend to keep that secret to my grave Mustang do not even ask. I was just trying to see if it worked, I didn't really comprehend the fact I created, well, life.”

Gracia breaks the tension with a light laugh, “I guess that explains why she was so small.” Edward soon follows along, but Mustang is lost in his head.

“You didn’t see her before all the fur fell off. And all those teeth.”

“How many times have you committed human transmutation, four times?” Mustang asks, horrified.

“I guess you could call me an expert.” Fullmetal concludes, in a way that Mustang doesn’t realize he avoided the question. 

Roy berates him, “Do I have to tell you how stupid of an idea that was.” He says, feeling like a father to an overgrown child. Realizing that he was the only father figure Fullmetal had doesn’t help much either. 

Edward sheepishly looks down at the table, having lost much of the brashness of his youth, “I think I figured that out.” He admits calmly.

“Do you want to tell her, Ed?” Gracia asks, softly, placing one of her hands over Fullmetal’s own.

The boy quietly looks down at his two flesh hands, “Yes.” He whispers, seemingly having accepted his own actions.

“Lena! Can you come back in here?” Gracia shouts to the other side of the house, soon an eleven year old alchemy prodigy comes rushing back, golden hair and eyes. She stands there, eyes curious and attentive. “We have something to tell you about your father.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is still an epilogue even if its nearly the length of the original work, right?
> 
> Hope you like it, I'd love if you comment!


End file.
